Tony Mack's McFly is Top J/111 at J-Cup
The J/Boats family bid a fond farewell to Paul Heys who 'sailed away' in February this year. Before the start of racing, the 60-boat fleet gathered in the vicinity of the proposed location for the Paul Heys Memorial Buoy for a special tribute. Whilst observing a minute’s silence, Paul Heys' ashes were released in a seashell by his wife Marie-Claude, assisted by Paul's daughters, Gemma and Natalie. Over £25,000 has already been raised, covering the cost and maintenance of the Paul Heys Memorial Buoy for 10 years. The target of £34,000, will ensure that the buoy will be raced around by Paul Hey's grandchildren and those of the J/Boat familys. To make a donation: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/paulheys. Martin Dent said, "It was fantastic when we came in and congregated. I looked at the other boats, and teams were standing in rows on deck to attention. It was very moving. We got to our feet as well in honour of an absolute legend. I am glad that we are fund raising to put a mark in to celebrate Paul. I hope the mark will be a place of much carnage....if ever we are doing a mark rounding there, we will leave the drop late, rodeo drop, and possibly fling it in with borderline rights in honour of the greatest rogue. Paul Heys has made more impact on sailing than any other single person, and is responsible for so many Solent sailors, including my family and team Jelvis. I miss him." The Landsail Tyres J-Cup is an annual event in which all J/Boats are invited to attend, to race in one-design classes or under IRC. The 2019 edition was hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club with racing in the Solent. Sixty teams racing 10 different examples of the J/Boats range were in action with skippers from Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States. All nine races were completed over three days of thrilling racing for over 300 sailors. Conditions ranged from moderate to fresh and frightening. Mother Nature saved her best until last with 25 knots of breeze in clear blue skies for the last race of a fantastic regatta. Competitors enjoyed the use of modern facilities at the Royal Southern Yacht Club, including the spacious Upper Bar with elevated views over the Hamble River. In the dining room, North Sails delivered a video debrief, a master class on heavy airs trimming and boat handling from: Dave Lenz, Ruairidh Scott, Jeremy Smart and Charlie Cumbley. In the J/111 fleet, Tony Mack's McFly held off a strong challenge to win the class from 2018 J/111 National Champion, Chris Jones & Louise Makin's Journeymaker II, and 2018 J-Cup winner Paul van Driel's Sweeny. In a high-octane close encounter, races were won by just seconds. Tony Mack was full of fun at the prize-giving, and was quick to praise his crew. Journeymaker II and Sweeny tied for second place, both scoring equal points after nine races. Sweeny was scored second on countback after winning the last race of the regatta.
Results Landsail Tyres J-Cup:
https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=6117
J/111s Battle in Chicago to Mackinac Race
The 111th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac Race, sponsored by Wintrust, will go down as one of the slowest on record. The J/111s battled up the lake with various boats leading at one point or another. Prevailing in the end was Rich Witzel’s ROWDY, followed by Tom Dickson’s WARLOCK in second and Scott Sellers’ NO SURPRISE in third. For more Chicago to Mackinac Race information, visit https://www.cycracetomackinac.com/.
Pura Vida Prevails in Chicago to Waukegan Race
A fleet of nearly 100 boats gathered for a sprint of 30.0nm from Chicago to Waukegan, IL. The first fleet started in a light easterly of 5-6 knots, but the subsequent starts were in nearly calm breeze. After three fleets could not fully clear the starting line, the Chicago Yacht Club’s Race Committee was forced to postpone the starts of the remaining fleets. Subsequently, as the next set of classes took off in the building breeze, it was clear the last class to start was going to have the greatest handicap advantage overall. The always formidable J/111 fleet on Lake Michigan made their mark in PHRF 2 Class with a near sweep: with John Kalanik’s PURA VIDA winning, Tom Dickson’s WARLOCK second by just 50 seconds, and Tom McIntosh’s MISTY in fourth place. For more Chicago to Waukegan Race information, visit https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=9446.
Slow 81st Queens Cup Race
The 81st challenge of one of the most storied yacht races on the Great Lakes—the 90.0nm race called the Queen’s Cup—may have set a record for dropouts. This year’s overnight race across Lake Michigan departed from Milwaukee, WI for St. Joseph, MI on June 28 in very light winds, hosted by Milwaukee’s South Shore Yacht Club and St. Joseph River Yacht Club. In the J/111 class, Mark & Colin Caliban’s NO QUARTER won, followed by Jeff Schaeffer’s SHMOKIN JOE in second. All the rest of the five J/111s retired. The winning boat averaged 3.9 knots. For more SSYC Queen’s Cup Race information, visit https://www.ssyc.org/queens-cup/queens-cup-home.
Light Round The Island Race
The 2019 edition of the Round The Island Race in the United Kingdom, hosted by the Island Sailing Club in Cowes, Isle of Wight, was one of the slowest ever for most of the fleet. The challenging 60.0nm race goes around the Isle of Wight. The forecast of sun and no more than 15 knots of wind was unlikely to create record-breaking conditions for the 1,253 entries. Nevertheless, with an ebbing tide and early morning east-south-easterly breeze, the fleet enjoyed a downwind spinnaker start, so the first leg to the Needles was reasonably swift for most of the fleet. However, the forecasted easing of the breeze to zero knots and a change from the easterly to a light westerly around 1400 to 1600 hours took its toll on the fleet. As it turned out, heading away from the island into more stable breeze was the best option. Excelling in the challenging conditions were the J/111s, included in the 26-boat IRC 1 division. Winning class by 35 minutes corrected was Cornell Riklin’s J/111 JITTERBUG. Taking third was Chris Jones and Louise Makin’s J/111 JOURNEYMAKER II, followed in fourth by the J/111 J4F (Frenchman Patrice Vidon), and eighth was Simon Bamford’s J/111 KESTREL. The overall J/Boats Trophy went to Riklin’s J/111 JITTERBUG. For more Round Island Race information, visit http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/web/code/php/main_c.php?section=home.
J/111 Wins PHRF Overall at Van Isle 360 Race
The biennial Van Isle 360 Race is comprised of nine individual legs that circumnavigate the Vancouver Island off the Pacific coastline of British Columbia. The combination of the nine legs determined the class winners as well as the overall winner. The legs were:
- Nanaimo to Comox- 36.9nm
- Comox to Campbell River- 27.6nm
- Deepwater Bay to Hardwicke Island- 24.2nm
- Hardwicke Island to Telegraph Cove- 41.0nm
- Telegraph Cove to Port Hardy- 28.7nm
- Port Hardy to Winter Harbour- 69.1nm
- Winter Harbour to Ucluelet- 138.1nm
- Ucluelet to Victoria Harbour- 98.2nm
- Victoria Harbour to Nanaimo- 59.9nm
That made for a total of at least 486.8nm down the rhumbline. The fleet experienced the standard extremes of weather from complete glass outs/waiting for breeze to 40 to 50 knot microbursts coming down from the mountain peaks. In the PHRF Division 1, winning was B. Chan and A. Smyth’s J/111 65 RED ROSES II with 19 points and also taking first PHRF Overall (six classes). For more Van Isle 360 Race information, visit https://www.vanisle360.com/.
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